The Football League Video Review: The Championship

It doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest that Channel Five are making a bit of a hash of their Football League coverage so far. With this in mind, we’ve pulled together all of the weekend’s goals from the Football League Championship for your perusal. Quite how long this experiment will last for before we return to text only reviews of the weekend in the Football League is, of course, a moot point, but for now here’s a round-up of the second weekend of the season in the Skybet Football League Championship.

Fulham vs Brighton & Hove Albion: How narrow the margins between victory and defeat can be, dear friends. Brighton & Hove Albion had started their season with two successive one-nil wins, and they continued their single goal margin run of victories further with a penalty kick four minutes into stoppage-time at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon. Perhaps it would be surprising to see that they are the only team in the division with a one hundred per cent record, but this is the Championship, after all. Brighton’s goals came through Sam Baldock and Tomer Hemed, after Kazenga Lua Lua had been tripped inside the penalty area, whilst Fulham’s came from Tom Cairney. Fulham now have just the one point from their opening two matches of the season.

Middlesbrough vs Bolton Wanderers: There are six clubs tucked in behind Brighton with a win and a draw from their opening two matches, and most impressive of the weekend of these were Middlesbrough, who swatted Bolton Wanderers aside at The Riverside Stadium on Saturday afternoon with three first half goals, with Diego Fabbrini scoring once and setting up a further two for Kike. A comfortable win for Middlesbrough, who gave the first impressions of having brushing away the disappointment of not getting promoted at the end of last season.

Brentford vs Bristol City: There’s not really anything between any of the chasing pack, but Brentford, another of the play-off losers in this division last season, picked up their first win of the season in coming from behind twice to beat newly-promoted Bristol City at a newly refurbished Ashton Gate. For the Bristol City manager Steve Cotterill, the biggest concern of his opening two matches is likely to be a defence that has now conceded six goals in its first two league matches of the season.

Derby County vs Charlton Athletic: Derby County continued their recovery from a traumatic second half of last season with a second draw of the season, this time at home against Charlton Athletic. Charlton had taken the lead three minutes into the second half thanks to a deflected shot from Tony Watt, but Derby levelled midway through the second half thanks to Chris “markedly not the singer out of Coldplay” Martin. It’s a second successive draw for the new Derby manager, Paul Clement.

Nottingham Forest vs Rotherham United: Confidence can be such a fragile emotion, and Nottingham Forest’s might have taken a bit of a dent after losing the first match of the competitive league season at Brighton a week ago on Friday. The nerves may have started jangling still further, when Danny Collins – a former Forest player, no less – gave Rotherham an early lead at The City Ground on Saturday afternoon, but Matt Mills equalised right on half-time, and a second half goal from Michail Antonio handed Rotherham their second league defeat in two matches this season. They haven’t won in the league sine the seventh of March.

Queens Park Rangers vs Cardiff: If Queens Park Rangers want a quick return to the Premier League, they’re probably going to need to hang onto a lead more effectively than they did against Cardiff City on Saturday afternoon. Goals from Clint Hill and Charlie Austin had given them a two goal advantage against Cardiff, but second half goals from Sean Morrison and Scott Malone were enough to give Cardiff their second league draw of the season.

Ipswich Town vs Sheffield Wednesday: Those amongst you who listen to to the 200% podcast may have noted that I picked Sheffield Wednesday as one of my potential wild cards for promotion to the Premier League at the end of this season. Sorry about that. My curse manifested itself on Saturday afternoon. Ross Wallace had given Wednesday an early lead, but this was cancelled out two minutes later through Freddie Sears, and a second goal, eight minutes into the second half from Tommy Smith, was enough to claim all three points for Ipswich.

Burnley vs Birmingham City: The club’s off-field issues have still not been completely resolved, but Birmingham City have made a reasonably convincing start to the league season with a win and a draw, following this draw at Turf Moor. Burnley, relegated from the Premier League at the end of last season, came from behind twice to tie the match, with their second equalising goal coming from Matt Taylor with nine minutes left to play.

Milton Keynes vs Preston North End: I’m not going to lie. I ummed and ahhed over whether to include this or not. It may have been a Preston win that tipped the balance, in the end, with Paul Gallagher scoring the only goal of the match in the first half. Preston remain unbeaten after two matches.

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Hull City: On Sunday lunchtime, Wolves and Hull City cancelled each other out with a one-all draw. An error from the Hull goalkeeper Allan McGregor granted Wolves a second half equaliser by dropping a cross, allowing James Henry to score, after Nikica Jelavic had given Hull a first half lead with a penalty. In Sunday’s other Championship match, Reading and Leeds United played out a goalless draw.

About The Author

Ian began writing Twohundredpercent in May 2006. He lives in Brighton. He has also written for, amongst others, Pitch Invasion, FC Business Magazine, The Score, When Saturday Comes, Stand Against Modern Football and The Football Supporter. Ian was the first winner of the Socrates Award For Not Being Dead Yet at the 2010 NOPA awards for football bloggers.